Rejoice! Issue 2 Our second issue has arrived! Please enjoy, and do join us at our launch party tomorrow evening (Tuesday, January 10) at Poetry Bar in Kensington (224 Augusta Ave), starting at 8 pm.

*blink blink* And so we emerge, more or less bright-eyed, into 2012.While the last days of December are all about looking back (plus sleeping and eating), early January finds us looking squarely ahead. The first slightly sleepy week of the year is behind us, now onto the next 51. And if you’re in need of a good book to accompany you into the future? Likely one of those on the National Post’s list of the 12 most anticipated books of 2012 will do the trick (once it’s been published, of course).

Literary resolutions Recent days saw many making (and then breaking), or else staunchly refusing to make, resolutions. I, for one, didn’t make any until I came across these literary resolutions. For as much as I’d like to spend more time at the gym, I’m much more likely to follow through on a resolution to spend more time at the library (also, lifting stacks of books = strength training). My own? As I’m generally a contemporary fiction kind of girl, I’m planning to start in on some classics this year. Maybe I’ll finally try some Austen. Also: write something that’s not an email every day. What about you?

But what to write? For others who have vowed to write more in 2012 but are searching for inspiration, Figment will email daily writing prompts through to March 30th. Among them will be prompts from authors Lev Grossman, Aimee Bender, and Curtis Sittenfeld. Those who want to catch up on last week’s prompts can find them in this roundup.

No damp pages The latest issue of The Thing Quarterly (“a periodical in the form of an object”), a shower curtain/short story by Dave Eggers, is now available.

Toronto Reference Library: now scaffolding free Make your way to the Toronto Reference Library tonight where David Young will interview Michael Ondaatje and Daniel Brooks about the adaptation of Ondaatje’s novel, Divisadero, into a play. This is also a wonderful opportunity to check out the TRL’s new entrance, which opened over the holidays. Monday, January 9, 7-8:30 pm, Toronto Reference Library Atrium, no registration required.

Get wrecked The winter edition of the Wrecking Ball (a performance series combining heavy metal and poetry – “Three bands, three readers, all badassery”) is this Friday, January 13 at the Garrison (1197 Dundas St. W). The show will feature bands Battle Soul, Corpusse and Into Exile with readers Liisa Ladouceur, Liz Worth, and Natalie Zina Walschots. $10, 8pm – 1am.